Honoring the First Ladies of Yoga

In India, the mother is considered the first guru, and yet the practice and teaching of yoga was long the domain of men. That changed during the mid-20th century, when several women “midwifed” yoga’s introduction to the West. Today, Friday, March 8, marks International Women’s Day, a fitting time to look at some of yoga’s most influential women.

Vanda Scaravelli (1908-1999) entertained artists, musicians, and intellectuals in her Italian villa, among them philosopher J. Krishnamurti. He introduced her to his yoga teacher, B.K.S. Iyengar, and she also studied with T.K.V. Desikachar. Scaravelli focused on the movements of the spine in asana, her approach influencing others, including Esther Myers (1947-2004), whose studio in Toronto continues to teach in Scaravelli’s style.

Swami Radha (1911-1995), a German woman who helped others flee the Nazi regime, emigrated to Canada, then traveled to India to study with Swami Sivananda Saraswati, becoming a sannyasin in 1956. After returning to Canada, she established an ashram in 1963. Now known as Yasodhara, it has affiliates throughout Canada and in the U.S., Britain, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

India has several family yoga dynasties; the U.S. has the Baptistes. Born in El Salvador, Magaña moved with her mother to San Francisco, where she studied dance and met Walter Baptiste, a bodybuilder with an interest in yoga. They married in 1944 and opened a series of fitness studios, concentrating on yoga more than a decade before San Francisco’s youth culture learned to Om. Baptiste and her daughters Sherri and Devi were initiated into Surat Shabda Yoga by Kirpal Singh. Sherri, Baron, and Devi Ananda carry on the Baptiste legacy.

Daughter of holistic health pioneers, Rama Jyoti Vernon studied with B.K.S. Iyengar in Pune, later inviting him and other Indian swamis to teach in her Bay Area home. A leader in the California Yoga Teachers Association, Vernon launched the publication that evolved into Yoga Journal on a typewriter at her kitchen table. She leads workshops and retreats around the U.S., integrating asana with yogic philosophy.

No yoga teacher has been welcomed into as many homes as Lilias Folan, whose PBS TV series aired 1972-1999. She counts many influences but calls Swami Chidananda her “root teacher.” Folan continues to inspire people of all ages and from all walks of life, teaching workshops around the U.S.

This international cast includes only a few of yoga’s leading ladies. Though they may not have branded yoga styles with their names, theirs is the Shakti—the divine feminine and generative power—behind yoga as it is practiced today throughout the West. Jai ma!

A former teacher and forever student, Kathleen Bryant swapped her running shoes for a yoga blanket in 1992, when she joined her first Hatha Yoga class in the back room of a local crystal shop. After earning a 500-hour teaching certificate from the International Yoga College, she taught anatomy, asana, and other subjects at 7 Centers School of Yoga Arts in Sedona, AZ. Kathleen is especially interested in the therapeutic aspects of yoga and continues to learn from Rama Jyoti Vernon, an amazing yogini who inspires her students to integrate yoga philosophy and mythology with contemporary life. An award-winning author, she has also published a children’s story, a cookbook, and books that focus on Southwest culture, travel, and natural history.

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